SCOOBA — While the East Mississippi Community College football team earned the desired result on the field Saturday, its latest victory didn’t leave the impression the Lions wanted.
No. 2 EMCC defeated then-No. 5 Mississippi Gulf Coast C.C. 42-21 in the opening round of the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges state playoffs Saturday in Scooba.
EMCC thought the victory would catapult it back to No. 1 one week after it fell from the top spot, but EMCC lost another poll point in the National Junior College Athletic Association poll released Tuesday and trails No. 1 Iowa Western College by six points.
The final regular-season poll will be released at noon Tuesday.
“All we can control is what happens on the field,” EMCC sophomore defensive back Quan Latham said. “We know on the field we are playing for a state championship. All of the focus is on that game.”
EMCC (10-0) will face No. 10 Copiah-Lincoln C.C. (8-2) at 3:30 p.m. Saturday in Wesson for the MACJC state championship. EMCC will shoot for its fourth state championship in six seasons.
EMCC was ranked No. 1 in the preseason for the second time in program history. It held that spot for the first eight weeks of the regular season before falling to No. 2 a week ago.
Iowa Western (10-0) received a big boost from defeating then No. 4-Hutchinson (Kansas) C.C. 58-34, while EMCC routed Mississippi Delta C.C. 65-0.
The NJCAA rankings are roughly 70 percent computers and 30 percent human vote. The strength of schedule component weighs heavily in the computer part of the equation. Still, it was assumed EMCC would get a similar boost this past week by having its opportunity to beat a top-five team.
It didn’t happen.
“The rankings have really been bizarre this year,” said Dallas Thomas, a writer for JuCo Football Magazine. “It is not uncommon to see an undefeated team win big and fall a spot or two. It just seems like there needs to be more accountability. There needs to be a more thorough, complete process in place.”
This Saturday, Iowa Western will close its regular season with the annual Battle for the Kinney Cup against Iowa Central (4-6). The state of Iowa doesn’t have a playoff system, so this will be the final game for the Reivers.
The final ranking next week will determine the matchup for the national championship.
If both teams win Saturday and the rankings don’t change, Iowa Western would play host to EMCC in the Graphic Edge Bowl played at the University of Northern Iowa Dome in Cedar Falls, Iowa. If both teams win and EMCC moves back to No. 1, the teams would play in the Mississippi Bowl in Biloxi. Both bowl games are Dec. 7.
A year ago, EMCC defeated Georgia Military College 52-32 in the Mississippi Bowl to win the program’s second national championship. EMCC also was ranked No. 2 in that matchup but played host to the bowl game because Georgia Military College didn’t have a bowl tie-in.
“It’s not really that big a deal for the players as long as we have a chance to play for a championship,” EMCC sophomore running back Preston Baker said. “Our focus is on the state championship game and then the bowl game. We have taken pride in being No. 1 throughout the season, but the main thing is being No. 1 after the bowl game.”
EMCC also was ranked No. 2 when it beat Arizona Western College in 2011 to win the El Toro Bowl in Yuma, Arizona, for the school’s first national championship.
EMCC beat Co-Lin 46-10 in the regular season. The last time the teams met in the playoffs, Co-Lin pulled off a 47-46 shocker in the semifinals in 2012. That Co-Lin win was EMCC’s only home loss in the four-year history of its new stadium.
A similar win by a wide margin could also help EMCC’s case to get back to No. 1. The Lions could feel jaded since they will bring a 22-game win streak into Saturday’s championship game, but that streak wasn’t good enough to push them back to No. 1.
“Everybody knows the situation,” Latham said. “They also know we have to come ready to play Saturday or those numbers won’t mean anything.”
Follow Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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